<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>This article aims to reflect on the main variables that make social robotics efficient in an educational and rehabilitative intervention. Social robotics is based on imitation, and the study is designed for children affected by profound autism, aiming for the development of their social interactions. Existing research, at the national and international levels, shows how children with autism can interact more easily with a robotic companion rather than a human peer, considering its less complex and more predictable actions. This contribution also highlights how using robotic platforms helps in teaching children with autism basic social abilities, imitation, communication and interaction; this encourages them to transfer the learned abilities to human interactions with both adults and peers, through human–robot imitative modelling. The results of a pilot study conducted in a kindergarten school in the Liguria region are presented. The study included applying a robotic system, at first in a dyadic child–robot relation, then in a triadic one that also included another child, with the aim of eliciting social and imitative abilities in a child with profound autism.</p></abstract>

This article aims to reflect on the main variables that make social robotics efficient in an educational and rehabilitative intervention. Social robotics is based on imitation, and the study is designed for children affected by profound autism, aiming for the development of their social interactions. Existing research, at the national and international levels, shows how children with autism can interact more easily with a robotic companion rather than a human peer, considering its less complex and more predictable actions. This contribution also highlights how using robotic platforms helps in teaching children with autism basic social abilities, imitation, communication and interaction; this encourages them to transfer the learned abilities to human interactions with both adults and peers, through human–robot imitative modelling. The results of a pilot study conducted in a kindergarten school in the Liguria region are presented. The study included applying a robotic system, at first in a dyadic child–robot relation, then in a triadic one that also included another child, with the aim of eliciting social and imitative abilities in a child with profound autism.

Social robotics to help children with autism in their interactions through imitation

Research on Education and Media

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

This article aims to reflect on the main variables that make social robotics efficient in an educational and rehabilitative intervention. Social robotics is...

Social robotics to help children with autism in their interactions through imitation

Published Online: Oct 10, 2017

Page range: 10 - 16

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/rem-2017-0003

Keywords
social robotics, imitation, interaction, autism, kindergarten

© 2017 Valentina Pennazio, published by De Gruyter Open

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

Social robotics to help children with autism in their interactions through imitation

Published Online: Oct 10, 2017

Page range: 10 - 16

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/rem-2017-0003

Keywordssocial robotics, imitation, interaction, autism, kindergarten

© 2017 Valentina Pennazio, published by De Gruyter Open

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

Keywords
social robotics, imitation, interaction, autism, kindergarten